The Kinsey Scale is a scale that is used to define human sexuality along a continuum. In the United States, we often tend to think of sexuality as a binary thing in which people fit into two distinctive categories. People are either heterosexual or homosexual. The Kinsey Scale is an attempt to show that there are gradations of sexuality in which people are neither exclusively heterosexual nor exclusively homosexual.

The Kinsey Scale uses six categories. On either end there are categories for people who are exclusively straight or gay. A person who is exclusively heterosexual, who has not had sexual experiences with someone of the same sex and who does not have any such desire, is rated as a 0. On the other end of the spectrum, a person who only has experience with and desire for members of the same sex is rated as a 6. The other four categories are:

People who are predominantly heterosexual with only incidental homosexual behavior or attraction

People who are predominantly heterosexual but are more than incidentally homosexual

People who are equally both

People who are predominantly homosexual but are more than incidentally heterosexual

People who are predominantly homosexual with only incidental heterosexual behavior or attraction